The points that got away...

There’s room for an awful lot of movement up or down in the last three games of the season but, as things stand, it looks likely the Sky Blues are going to miss out on the play-offs by a handful of points.

Tony Mowbray confessed on Tuesday that he finds it ‘galling’ to reflect on some of their results against sides in the lower reaches when they are well in credit against teams at the top.

In their 12 games against the current top six, City have won six, drawn three and lost three with a goals aggregate of 17-9 so the supporters will certainly share the manager’s frustration at some of the points that got away.

That enigmatic form will, of course, be tested again when they travel to the Keepmoat Stadium this weekend where Doncaster Rovers are fighting for their League One survival with one Gary McSheffrey doing his level best to keep them up.

Ruben Lameiras has a shot at goal

Sky Blues artists painting a healthy picture

There was a return of the swagger that the Sky Blues displayed in their early season pomp with the technically-gifted Ruben Lameiras and James Maddison – what Mowbray calls his artists – moving the ball about and causing problems in the final third with their trickery.

That was backed up by the manager’s ‘warriors’ who kept a big and physical Bradford – a virtual carbon copy of Millwall – at arm’s length to the last kick of the game with a show of spirit and confidence that has returned to log back-to-back victories for the first time since November.

Andy Rose, who falls into the warrior category, had been dropped to make way for Maddison but the former Seattle Sounder responded superbly with his first goal for the club within a minute of entering the field to highlight his promise for next season and beyond.

Mowbray’s change of formation worked a treat

The manager admitted afterwards that he’d toyed with the idea of switching to three at the back and wing-backs during City;s slump but, knowing how well his 4-2-3-1 system had worked in the first four months of the campaign, decided to keep faith with it in the hope that the form would return.

However, having made the change and seeing it work to good effect, we can expect to see it on a more regular basis next season.

On this occasion, wing-backs Aaron Phillips and Sam Ricketts helped peg back the Bantams’ wide men by playing high up the pitch while the back three were solid throughout – Romain Vincelot proving he can slot into that role while Aaron Martin is now looking the player we all hoped he would be when he signed – and that was backed up by another commanding display from young keeper Reice Charles-Cook who is back on top form.

Reice Charles-Cook makes another save

Sky Blues denied by the ref

Football stats, particularly those which appear on the BBC’s website match reports, can be notoriously misleading but one we can presumably trust is the fact that only 11 free-kicks were conceded in an intensely competitive game – seven by the Sky Blues and, remarkably, four by Bradford.

Of course the off-the-ball incident that left Jack Stephens on the deck and cost Steven Davies a red card doesn’t count because the ball was out of play at the time and, while the result made it academic, every home fan went home convinced that Rob Lewis ignored two blatant offences in the penalty area.

Nathan Clarke tugging Adam Armstrong to the ground was bad enough but Stephen Darby’s trip on Lameiras looked as stone-wall as they come.

Arma still searching for goal no.20

City’s recent penalty record – they’ve squandered nine of their last 13 – makes it anything but certain that they would have cashed in had Mr Lewis pointed to the spot on either occasion but, having converted twice in impeccable style this season, the odds are that Adam Armstrong would have seized the opportunity to finally log his 20th goal of the season.

It’s now ten games since he netted and that is clearly weighing on his shoulders but two match-winning assists in the space of four days prove the Newcastle teenager pulls his weight even when he’s not on target.